Post by antigua on Mar 21, 2021 12:43:06 GMT -5
I just acquired this very nice Schecter www.schecterguitars.com/guitars/c-1-fr-s-sls-elite-1-detail which comes with a Fishman Fluence Modern in the bridge, and a Sustainiac in the neck. Even though the Sustainiac is a primarily an Ebow like device that is built into a guitar and sits in the position of a neck pickup, this one, at least, also functions as an active pickup.
First, the Fishman Fluence Modern www.fishman.com/portfolio/fluence-modern-humbucker-pickup/ , they say it has a ceramic magnet(s?), the Gauss reading above the plastic peaks around 250G, which is what I've typically measured over PAFs with AlNiCo 5 bars.
The Fluence Modern has two voicing options that are controllable with a push pull pot. One called "modern" the other called "crisp clean fluid". The first voice is obviously very EMG-like, with a rolled off low end, a mid peak 700Hz that rolls off a lot more gradually than a passive pickup. The second voice mimics a hot passive pickup, with a flat response up to a simulated resonance at 2.0kHz on the head, and a little 1.5dB amplitude bump at that resonance. As expected, adding a cable dummy load has no effect whatsoever on the response, so it's cable agnostic.
Next, the Sustainiac, it's apparently called "Stealth Pro" www.sustainiac.com/st-pro.htm , they say "The sound is very similar to a Strat neck pickup, but with virtually no hum." The response curve is unique, apart from either passive pickups or the EMG pattern, with a rolled off low end up to around 400Hz, and a very flat response all the way up to 2.5kHz, and then a steep drop much beyond 4kHz. It's sort of like a cross between an EMG and a passive single coil.
Only the side of the Sustainiac that has the visible metal is receiving signal from the strings, and it looks like the other half of the pickup is just an empty shell, to make it fit nicely a PAF route in a guitar. The Gauss strength over the exposed metal is around 400G, with the wound strings being south up and the plain strings being north up. Looking down the sides, there seems to be some rather large ceramic magnets underneath the pickup housing. Some day I'll open it up and take a look, but for now I just wanted to plot the responses.
